March 31Birthdays & History

On this day: March 31 in history

Oldest first. Tap a year to see it on the World Chronicle timeline.

1. 307After divorcing his wife Minervina, Constantine marries Fausta, daughter of the retired Roman emperor Maximian.Europe
2. 1146Bernard of Clairvaux preaches his famous sermon in a field at Vézelay, urging the necessity of a Second Crusade. Louis VII is present, and joins the Crusade.Europe
3. 1174A conspiracy against Saladin, aiming to restore the Fatimid Caliphate, is revealed in Cairo, involving senior figures of the former Fatimid regime and the poet Umara al-Yamani. Modern historians doubt the extent and danger of the conspiracy reported in official sources, but its ringleaders will be publicly executed over the following weeks.Middle East
4. 1272Pope Gregory X calls for a General Church Council to discuss reunion of Churches, Crusade to the Holy Land and Church reform.Europe
5. 1492Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile sign the Edict of Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, ordering all Jews in their kingdoms to either convert to Christianity or leave the country.Europe
6. 1521Ferdinand Magellan and fifty of his men came ashore to present-day Limasawa to participate in the first Catholic mass in the Philippines.Asia
7. 1657The Long Parliament presents the Humble Petition and Advice offering Oliver Cromwell the British throne, which he eventually declines.Europe
8. 1706The last session of history of the Catalan Courts, the parliament of the Principality of Catalonia, ends. Catalonia's constitutional modernisation passed by the Courts aims to improve the guarantee of individual, political and economic rights (such as the secrecy of correspondence).Europe
9. 1717A sermon on "The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ" by Benjamin Hoadly, the Bishop of Bangor, preached in the presence of King George I of Great Britain, provokes the Bangorian Controversy.Europe
10. 1761The 1761 Lisbon earthquake strikes off the Iberian Peninsula with an estimated magnitude of 8.5, six years after another quake destroyed the city.Europe
11. 1774American Revolution: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed pursuant to the Boston Port Act.North AmericaEurope
12. 1814The Sixth Coalition occupies Paris after Napoleon's Grande Armée capitulates.Europe
13. 1854Commodore Matthew Perry signs the Convention of Kanagawa with the Tokugawa Shogunate, opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American trade.AsiaNorth America
14. 1885The United Kingdom establishes the Bechuanaland Protectorate.Europe
15. 1889The Eiffel Tower is officially opened.Europe
16. 1899Philippine–American War: Malolos, capital of the First Philippine Republic, is captured by American forces.AsiaNorth America
17. 1901Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák premieres at the National Opera House in Prague.Europe
18. 1905Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany declares his support for Moroccan independence in Tangier, beginning the First Moroccan Crisis.EuropeAfrica
19. 1906The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later the National Collegiate Athletic Association) is established to set rules for college sports in the United States.North America
20. 1909Serbia formally withdraws its opposition to Austro-Hungarian actions in the Bosnian Crisis.Europe
21. 1913The Vienna Concert Society rioted during a performance of modernist music by Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Alexander von Zemlinsky, and Anton von Webern, causing a premature end to the concert due to violence; this concert became known as the Skandalkonzert.Europe
22. 1917According to the terms of the Treaty of the Danish West Indies, the islands become American possessions.EuropeLatin AmericaNorth America
23. 1918Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States for the first time.North America
24. 1918Massacre of ethnic Azerbaijanis is committed by allied armed groups of Armenian Revolutionary Federation and Bolsheviks. Nearly 12,000 Azerbaijani Muslims are killed.Europe
25. 1921The Royal Australian Air Force is formed.Oceania
26. 1930The Motion Picture Production Code is instituted, imposing strict guidelines on the treatment of sex, crime, religion and violence in film, in the U.S., for the next thirty-eight years.North America
27. 1931A Transcontinental & Western Air airliner crashes near Bazaar, Kansas, killing eight, including University of Notre Dame head football coach Knute Rockne.North America
28. 1931An earthquake in Nicaragua destroys Managua; killing 2,000.Latin America
29. 1933The Civilian Conservation Corps is established with the mission of relieving rampant unemployment in the United States.North America
30. 1939Events preceding World War II in Europe: Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain pledges British military support to the Second Polish Republic in the event of an invasion by Nazi Germany.Europe
31. 1942World War II: Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession.AsiaEurope
32. 1945World War II: A defecting German pilot delivers a Messerschmitt Me 262A-1, the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, to the Americans, the first to fall into Allied hands.Europe
33. 1949The Dominion of Newfoundland joins the Canadian Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada.North America
34. 1951Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.North America
35. 1957Elections to the Territorial Assembly of the French colony Upper Volta are held. After the elections PDU and MDV form a government.EuropeAfrica
36. 1958In the Canadian federal election, the Progressive Conservatives, led by John Diefenbaker, win the largest percentage of seats in Canadian history, with 208 seats of 265.North America
37. 1959The 14th Dalai Lama crosses the border into India and is granted political asylum.Asia
38. 1964Brazilian General Olímpio Mourão Filho orders his troops to move towards Rio de Janeiro, beginning the coup d'état and 21 years of military dictatorship.Latin America
39. 1966The Labour Party under Harold Wilson wins the 1966 United Kingdom general election.Europe
40. 1966The Soviet Union launches Luna 10 which later becomes the first space probe to enter orbit around the Moon.Europe
41. 1968American President Lyndon B. Johnson speaks to the nation of "Steps to Limit the War in Vietnam" in a television address. At the conclusion of his speech, he announces: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President."North AmericaAsia
42. 1970Explorer 1 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere after 12 years in orbit.World
43. 1980The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad operates its final train after being ordered to liquidate its assets because of bankruptcy and debts owed to creditors.North America
44. 1986Mexicana de Aviación Flight 940 crashes into the Sierra Madre Oriental mountain range near the Mexican town of Maravatío, killing 167.Latin America
45. 1990Approximately 200,000 protesters take to the streets of London to protest against the newly introduced Poll Tax.Europe
46. 1991Georgian independence referendum: Nearly 99 percent of the voters support the country's independence from the Soviet Union.Europe
47. 1991The Warsaw Pact formally disbands.Europe
48. 1992The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.North America
49. 1992The Treaty of Federation is signed in Moscow.Europe
50. 1993The Macao Basic Law is adopted by the Eighth National People's Congress of China to take effect December 20, 1999. Resumption by China of the Exercise of Sovereignty over MacaoNorth AmericaAsia
51. 1995TAROM Flight 371, an Airbus A310-300, crashes near Balotesti, Romania, killing all 60 people on board.Europe
52. 1995Selena is murdered by her fan club president Yolanda Saldívar at a Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas.North America
53. 1998Netscape releases Mozilla source code under an open source license.North America
54. 2004Iraq War in Anbar Province: In Fallujah, Iraq, four American private military contractors working for Blackwater USA, are killed after being ambushed.Middle EastNorth America
55. 2005The dwarf planet Makemake is discovered by a team led by astronomer Michael E. Brown at the Palomar Observatory.World
56. 2016NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko return to Earth after a yearlong mission at the International Space Station.North America
57. 2018Start of the 2018 Armenian revolution.Europe
58. 2023A historic tornado outbreak occurs in the American Midwest and South.North America

Source: Wikipedia "March 31" / CC BY-SA 4.0